Evidence for Learning says the federal Labor Opposition’s announcement today of a $280 million body, the Evidence Institute for Schools, has the potential to boost Australia’s stagnating education results and put our schools among the world’s best.

'This is a smart investment that would help ensure the $50 billion annual spend on education delivers better learning outcomes for children by supporting teachers and Principals to adopt practices that are proven to work,' said Matthew Deeble, Director of Evidence for Learning, a national non-profit education organisation.

'Over the last two years Evidence for Learning has been advocating for an effective national and independent evidence broker like this and we have been piloting a model to show how it can work with different schools, education systems and states.

'An evidence broker is the missing piece in our national education architecture.

'We welcome that the Institute would be independent of government and that it would commission new robust evidence, which would involve teachers acting as researchers by trialing teaching practices and reporting back, no matter the outcomes.

'Properly delivered with the right mechanisms, this initiative would provide the best and latest evidence on teaching and learning for free in an easy-to-use format for decision-makers, teachers and parents. This is especially important for the great educators who work in the most challenging circumstances and communities.

'It’s vital that the Institute would spread success across all of our schools, by helping outstanding schools share their knowledge in order to make great practice become common practice in education.

Evidence for Learning has developed a free Teaching & Learning Toolkit that distills the evidence on teaching and learning approaches in an easy-to-use format.